Will iconic images recorded in the grooves of an ancient vase unite the Holy Land or rip it further apart?

THE VASE

A novel by Mark M. DeRobertis

Muhsin Muhabi is a Palestinian potter, descended from a long line of potters. His business is run from the same shop owned by his ancestors since the day his forebears moved to Nazareth. The region's conflict saw the death of his oldest son, and rogue terrorists are in the process of recruiting his youngest in their plot to assassinate the Pope and Israeli prime minister.

Professor Hiram Weiss is an art historian at Nazareth’s Bethel University. He is also a Shin Bet operative on special assignment. With the help of fellow agent, Captain Benny Mathias, he plans to destroy the gang responsible for the death of his wife and only child. He puts a bomb in the ancient vase he takes on loan from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.

Mary Levin, the charming assistant to the director of Shin Bet, has lost a husband and most of her extended family to recurring wars and never-ending terrorism. She dedicates her life to the preservation of Israel, but to whom will she dedicate her heart? The brilliant professor from Bethel University? Or the gallant captain who now leads Kidon?

Harvey Holmes, the Sherlock of Haunted Houses, is a Hollywood TV host whose reality show just flopped. When a Lebanese restaurant owner requests his ghost-hunting services, he believes the opportunity will resurrect his career. All he has to do is exorcise the ghosts that are haunting the restaurant. It happens to be located right across the street from Muhsin’s Pottery Shop.




Tuesday, January 26, 2021

The Blacklist - Now a Big Joke

The Blacklist. Once it was a very good TV show. It featured a great actor, James Spader, playing the role of a great character, Raymond Red Reddington. It also had a weak actress, Megan Boone, playing a weak character, Elizabeth Lizzy Keane. But the weak character of Keane and the weak performances of Boone did not matter. And that was because the great acting of Spader and the great character of Reddington more than made up for it.

But now we have to believe the weak Keane has become the "female" Red Reddington. Now, the former FBI agent, Keane, is going to be the top criminal mastermind who will destroy, (that word again) the current top criminal mastermind of Reddington. Yeah. Right. We've heard that how many times now?

This is all one big joke of a show. And to make my meaning clear, a big joke of a show means that a once great show has become a perverse shadow of its former self. In simpler terms, it SUCKS.

I said this before. Reddington was the main character of Blacklist, not Keane. Spader was the star of the show, not Boone. But with Hollywood's focus on "feminism" the past twenty years, they are trying to reverse the roles, I suppose. Just like the joke of making Halle Berry the "female" John Wick. And now they are making the Equalizer into a female, too, on a new TV show. Another joke. It's a fat, old woman, at that. It was enough we had a skinny old woman pretending to be John Wick. Sheesh. Nothing against skinny or fat people by the way. And nothing against old people, either.

But Hollywood has lost it. They don't care. As long as the money rolls in, that's all they need to see. What ever happened to ratings? Well, I won't be watching The Equalizer, that's for sure. I won't even give it a single viewing. I have better things to do. As for Blacklist? Hey, it used to be my favorite show. And I still hope it can return to being that. I have hope because they can still salvage it.

Here's how they can salvage it. First of all, Lizzy NEVER gets the better of Red. That just better not ever happen. And lastly, it better be revealed THIS SEASON that Red IS THE TRUE BIOLOGICAL FATHER of Lizzy. That will be the only thing that can bring any sense to this show. And even better, if it were to also be revealed that the lady known as Katarina was NOT the biological mother of Lizzy.

Then and only then can I say, "Well, they had me for a bit there. Clever assholes, as they were, they had me, but now it's all good." And it will be my favorite TV show again. Will it be? Who knows? I would like it to be. Let's see those qualifiers happen, first.

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